Artist One: Jözef Sumichrast

HAIR 2007© - urethane 18" X 24" X 10"

DIVER 1995© - plaster 32" x 11" x 11"

Jözef Sumichrast creates work that exists both representationally and abstractly, which is a representation of the mystery he likes to incorporate into his works. His work encourages movement and exploration of space, light, and viewer participation. He works with sheet metal and cardboard.

I found this artist interesting because of the not-quite-normal stylistic approaches and simply because some of his art just looks cool. His art is also painfully personal: following a traumatic event in his life, he started incorporating the color red into his works, representative of his legs being surgically reattached.

HORIZONTAL AND VERTICAL 2010© -bronze 28” x 16” x 18”

(I like this piece significantly less than the others, only because their thin heads make me uneasy)

When asked about whether he was an abstract artist, he said: "Arshile Gorky hanged himself. Jackson Pollock got drunk and drove into a tree. Terry Kitchen shot himself in the mouth and Mark Rothko slashed himself to death with a kitchen knife. Hummm, no, no, I'm not an abstract expressionist."

S MERMAID 1992© - bronze 54" x 30" x 13"

cupric patina